Catholic teens raise funds for summer pilgrimage to Rome

Parents and confirmation students met during an area taco joint's after hours to discuss their summer travel plans.

The hands on a red Coca-Cola clock ticked as the mothers and grandmothers chatted back and forth on a cloudy November afternoon about what their children would soon encounter.

Dora Silva, a confirmation teacher at Our Lady of Victory Cathedral in Victoria, led the gaggle of Catholic mothers through what was left to be raised in fundraising for the trip across the ocean - to the land of pizza and purses, Italy.

The group will be on a Holy Spirit pilgrimage, where they will visit cathedrals and other historic biblical sites all while learning more about Catholicism.

The trip is a few months away, and the group of area Catholic teens still need 15 more spots to be filled.

Because all of the students are under 21 years of age, Our Lady of Victory and other area Catholic dioceses would not be providing any of the students with funding for the trip.

"It's because of the worry surrounding international travel," said OLV representative Betty Mitchell. "The bishops have made it a policy to not provide funding for international travels for underage members of the church."

Silva and her crew of sprouting young Catholics booked their pilgrimage through Little Flower Tours and Travel, a travel agency based out of New York.

The prices for the 12-day pilgrimage to Italy range from $700 to $3,599, with round-trip airfare, hotel stay, meals, a guide and daily Mass tours included.